In support of cultural studies, he writes: "By focusing on
the cultural roots of national behavior, both in society and
business, we can foresee and calculate with a surprising degree
of accuracy how others will react to our plans for them, and we
can make certain assumptions as to how they will approach us. A
working knowledge of the basic traits of other cultures (as well
as our own) will minimize unpleasant surprises (culture shock),
give us insights in advance, and enable us to interact
successfully with nationalities with whom we previously had
difficulty."

Although cultural generalizations can be overly reductive,
Lewis, who speaks ten languages, insists it can be done
fairly, writing: "Determining national characteristics is
treading a minefield of inaccurate assessment and surprising
exception. There is, however, such a thing as a national
norm."

When meeting with French, be prepared for a vigorous
logical debate.

When meeting with Americans, expect them to lay all their
cards on the table, get upset when there's a disagreement, and
resolve as fast as possible with one or both sides making
concessions.

We'll go over the rest in brief after a
selection of communication charts taken with permission from
"When
Cultures Collide." Below, conversational range
is shown with increasing width, obstacles are marked in gray, and
cultural traits are noted as well.

crossculture.com

As you may surmise, "When
Cultures Collide" spends relatively little time on today's
emerging markets, which is unfortunate but not surprising since
it was originally published in 1996. The book does offer some
commentary on Africa, South America, and other places not
mentioned here, however, as well as much further commentary on
these 25 countries — and we advise anyone interested in
international communication to check it out.

Let's go over the other diagrams in brief,
paraphrasing and quoting from Lewis:

Canadians, compared to Americans, tend to be more low-key
and inclined to seek harmony, though they are similarly
direct.

English tend to avoid confrontation in an understated,
mannered, and humorous style that can be powerful or
inefficient.

Germans rely on logic but "tend to amass more evidence and
labor their points more than either the British or the
French."

Spanish and Italians "regard their languages as instruments
of eloquence and they will go up and down the scale at will,
pulling out every stop if need be to achieve greater
expressiveness."

The Nordic countries often have entrenched opinions that
they have formulated "in the long dark nights," though they are
reasonable conversationalists. Swedes often have the most
wide-ranging discussions, Finns tend to value concision, and most
Norwegians fall somewhere in between.

Swiss tend to be straightforward and unaggressive negotiators,
who obtain concessions by expressing confidence in the quality
and value of their goods and services.

Hungarians value eloquence over logic and are unafraid to talk
over each other.

Bulgarians may take a circuitous approach to negotiations before
seeking a mutually beneficial resolution, which will often be
screwed up by bureaucracy.

Poles often have a communication style that is "enigmatic,
ranging from a matter-of-fact pragmatic style to a wordy,
sentimental, romantic approach to any given subject."

The Dutch are focused on facts and figures but "are also great
talkers and rarely make final decisions without a long 'Dutch'
debate, sometimes approaching the danger zone of overanalysis."

Chinese tend to be more direct than the Japanese and some
other East Asians; however, meetings are principally for
information gathering, with the real decisions made elsewhere.
Hong Kongers negotiate much more briskly to achieve quick
results.

Indian English "excels in ambiguity, and such things as truth and
appearances are often subject to negotiation."

Australians tend to have a loose and frank conversational style.

Singaporeans generally take time to build a relationship, after
which they can be shrewd negotiators.

Koreans tend to be energetic conversationalists who seek to close
deals quickly, occasionally stretching the truth.

Indonesians tend to be very deferential conversationalists,
sometimes to the point of ambiguity.

Israelis tend to proceed logically on most issues but
emotionally on some.

And that's how one respected, well-traveled, and highly
multilingual linguist sees the world.